I couldn't find the Virgin Mobile Marbl by Kyocera in the list of available cell phones so that I could review it so I thought I'd write a guide about my impression of Virgin Mobile's prepaid cellular services and the Marbl for potential buyers; and my experiences with cell phone service from Tracfone and AT&T Cingular GoPhone as well.

First of all not all cell phone service providers serve all areas, so be SURE to go out on the internet and search for cell provider websites, like Credo Mobile, Virgin Mobile, Verizon, Tracfone, Net 10, AT&T wireless, T-Mobile, etc. and check their service area coverage maps.  If they provide a map, you can type in your town and/or street address and it shows how strong the signal should be for your area. Some sites ask you to type in the zip code for the area you'll be using the phone in the most and will just reply to say whether or not service is available for that zip.

I have 3 cell phones with prepaid service from 3 different providers, Virgin Mobile, AT&T/Cingular (GoPhone), and Tracfone (with Verizon as the provider).  I live in a rural hilly and wooded area north of Fresno, California and the signal is strongest for the AT&T.  But even though the Tracfone rarely shows more than 2-3 bars of signal strength while I'm at home 5 miles out of town I can still use it without dropped calls. 

The Virgin Mobile is really funny because the service area on their map shows as being NO signal in my residential area, just near town, but I get between 1-3 bars or up to 4 bars occasionally depending on what direction I aim the phone.  I get almost no signal in the house unless I'm by an open window facing west, and it gets up to 3-4 bars outside facing west.  But I wasn't supposed to get ANY service on my street according to the map, and so I imagine how strong the signal is in areas that are inside the 'green' service areas on the map. 

I bought the Kyocera Marbl model of phone to test Virgin Mobile's service before investing in a higher priced QWERTY keypad device.  Virgin is one of the few that offers QWERTY devices to prepaid customers, and currently they have one called the Wildcard for about $100 plus or minus depending where you buy it. 

Most if not all of Virgin's phones offer a mobile browser, even their low cost models like the Aloha (about $15 and up depending where you buy it), and the Marbl, and Oystr for about the same or a bit more than the Aloha. 

Even if the ads don't say you can use their data services or browser for email and surfing eBay, I found that I can surf eBay and check my Yahoo and MSN hotmail on my Marbl phone (and on my AT&T GoPhone, which is a Nokia 2610).  I didn't need to download a program to use eBay or MSN, I just went to their mobile site on the regular internet and typed my cell # into the text boxes provided to have them send me their mobile site link.  Alternately, you can just type eBay or whatever the service into your mobile phone's browser search text box and it will pull up links.  I was able to get to eBay that way. 

Compared to my Nokia 2610 AT&T GoPhone, the Kyocera Marbl using Virgin's browser service was slower at scrolling down pages, the GoPhone was considerably faster at scrolling, but I found that the loading of pages with the Marbl wasn't much slower, and the quality of the photo images and page text readability was very good on the Marbl. 

I notice that the page layouts are different for eBay on the Marbl than on the Nokia, with slightly different options for searching or browsing, but the best thing was that for $20, I got a cell phone with prepaid service and a mobile browser that WORKS. 

I use my cell phones as backup in case the internet or power goes out, or for checking auction items or email when I can't take the time to get online on the computer.  So for people who sell or buy on eBay a lot, but minimal access to the net most of the time, a cell with a WAP or mobile browser is a great convenience.  I can log in to My eBay, or just search specific items to see how my bids are doing. 

PayPal also offers services for use with cell phones but I haven't tried those yet so can't say how those do using my particular services or phones. However, a simple text message can send a payment, it can check your PayPal balance, and you can even add a short note to the payment. 

Also of note, Virgin Mobile provides prepaid service that is AFFORDABLE.  To keep my Marbl phone active, I only have to top up once in 90 days with a minimum of $20 using a debit, PIN activated Topup card, or PayPal.  I've registered my PayPal account with their website and I can top up whenever I choose with PayPal, and there's a minimum of $10 using that method.  I can do it from the phone or from the website and it's fast. 

Virgin offers a number of plans for people who talk more, or less, and bundles or discount packages for people who text or IM a lot.  I chose their data services package for $5 a month that allows me 5megabytes of data transfer on the Virgin XL mobile net (the option is day pass for $1).  Up to my monthly limit, I can go into my hotmail box at MSN and read email or send a brief one and it only costs the $5 a month fee plus the 15c per day VXL access fee.  If you like to get on the WAP web a lot, at least a few minutes a day, the monthly package is best. 

I also subscribe to Virgin Mobile's 9.99 a month/1000 texts per month texting package.  There's also a 200 texts pack for half that, but I used that allotment up in about a week or so.  They also have an unlimited texting pack for $20 per month, and their texting packs include ordinary text messages or IM's (Instant Messages using MSN, Yahoo, or AIM services-- I haven't used those yet on my phones).   If you sign up for autodebit monthly subscription, you can get the unlimited messaging pack for $10 a month, but I like choosing when I topup so I don't do that-- not yet.  Maybe if I get one of Virgin's QWERTY keypad devices.

The amount for the messaging pack and VXL pack is debited from the USD balance I keep on my phone.  The texting pack automatically renews on the expiration date (I can cancel or change it in my account online or on the phone to avoid the fee), but I don't have to renew the $5/mo month pass until I try to use the VXL WAP browser again.  When I activate the browser if the pack has expired, it prompts me for which service I want (day pass or month pass) and when I choose, it debits my phone and gives me immediate access.  The 15c a day VXL fee is activated by logging into my account online and choosing it, but it might be possible to do that on the phone through my account login page.

I don't do very much talking by cell, I just use it when away from the house for texting or quick calls and mostly I use my phones for the WAP browser and do texting.  But I think Virgin offers some fairly affordable prepaid talk options for those who like to talk by cell, well-- affordable as far as prepaid or contract cellular talk plans go.  Their phones and services are well worth looking into. 

Currently the Wildcard is the only QWERTY device they have at the website so I think the Switch_back or Switchback QWERTY phone may be being phased out.  If you don't know what a QWERTY is, it means the text keys and number keys are arranged sort of like on a computer keyboard and the Wildcard has two keypads.  Folded, it looks like an ordinary cell phone but unfolded, there's another screen inside and a QWERTY keypad mounted sideways. 

Another thing I like about my Virgin Marbl, is that is has quite a bit of memory on board for storing ringtones and graphics.  I was able to buy those off of their website and it was sort of fun.  I've only owned a cell for about two years now, so I'm still goofy over what they can do.  

With my AT&T Nokia 2610, I started out with their 200 anytime minutes monthly debit plan for 29.99 + their 4.99/mo 1megabyte MEdiaNet bundle.  I found that I used the phone MUCH more for MEdiaNet than for talk, so I switched to a plan that works better for me.  I reversed to the Pay As You Go plan, choosing their $1/day, 10c per minute talk plan (the option is 25c per minute and no $1 a day fee), and added the 9.99/mo 1000 text plan, and the 9.99/mo 5megabyte MEdiaNet bundle.  If I use the phone, I pay a flat $1 a day charge and then 10c a minute for talk time, for voicemail and calls.  If I don't use the phone for calling or checking voicemail, no $1 fee, but I can still use the MEdiaNet and text without incurring that fee.  I paid for monthly packs for those services so I don't pay per message. 

If I were to pay per message for texts on the AT&T Nokia, I would pay 15c per text, and if I didn't subscribe to their MEdiaNet bundle, I'd pay 1c per Kilobyte of data transfer on the MEdiaNet.  The 1000 texting pack gives me penny texts like the Virgin Mobile 1000 message texting pack.  But the AT&T phone sometimes breaks incoming texts up into 2 or more parts if the message is from an email box.  The Virgin phone truncates the messages and only sends one; same with my Tracfone, and I like that better. 

A weird thing about the AT&T Nokia is that when I start a text, it shows that I can insert 1000 characters or spaces, but if I try to do a message that has more than maybe 100-120, it gets a delivery return message saying it couldn't send.  My Virgin Phone and older Nokia Tracfone can send messages maybe 140 characters or spaces long. 

I can send pre-recorded audio messages with the AT&T, but when I tried to send one to my Virgin phone it didn't receive, so the receiving phone has to have the capability also.

I can get MSN hotmail alerts on my Nokia from AT&T (or any cellphone), and the incoming text tells me who wrote and what it says in the subject line.  That's a cool service.  With the WAP browser, I can then go into my mobile MSN box to read their mail and write a short reply, but one much longer than an ordinary text message.  I haven't tried Yahoo's cell email alerts yet so don't know how well that works.  With the texting pack, those text alerts are real cheap.

One thing I like about texting by cell with the AT&T and Virgin phones, is I can insert emoticons into the message-- not just texted :-> but the actual emoticon images.  Childish, but I like these little features!  My older Nokia Tracfone just inserts the texted smileys :->

The Tracfone doesn't offer texting packs at this time, I put funds on the phone and everything I do-- texting, calls-- are debited from the amount of the phone balance, 1/2 a unit for a text, 1 unit per minute for calls.  The cheapest prepaid card is 19.99 for 60 units.  I recharge online and get special deal offers that save money & extend the service period on the phone.  They have topup cards, or online offers you buy from their website by debit that give you a free unit for every unit you buy (double minutes card), and they offer phones that include double minutes for the life of the phone.  Their rates per minute for talk time vary depend on which card you buy.   If you buy 60 unit cards that works out to about 33c per unit for call minutes and about 16c-17c per text.  If you got a double minutes or double units deal, that cost would be cut in half because you'd be paying for half the units you receive.  I like the phone's reliability, and although it doesn't have a WAP browser, I keep it for reliability despite there being cheaper packs available from Virgin or AT&T's GoPhone.

Some cell services provide prepaid services and some only provide contract services.  The prepaid services can be converted to monthly payments that offer discounts for time or data services bundles, instant messaging and texting packages, etc, like the monthly debit 29.99 anytime minutes plan I had on my AT&T GoPhone.  Using that option, prepaid isn't much to any more expensive than contract phone monthly services depending on the package you choose.  But unless you use your phone a lot, especially for talking, you may be like me and find that the prepaid pay as you go plans using store bought top up cards or PayPal(not all cellservices accept PayPal), or a debit card to pay for top ups, is most economical and convenient.  Unless you intend to be doing hours a day of yakking, you probably should start out with topup cards or buying time using the other methods that allow you to choose when to add more time. Then if you find your usage warrants it, upgrade to a bundle or package that saves you more money if you pay by the month.

A great thing about these low cost prepaids is that it is an excellent way to check a service provider's services for quality before investing in a more expensive device, or more expensive long term contract.  If you don't like the service, then you just don't have to use the phone anymore and no penalties.

My Tracfone uses Verizon for service provider (it may not use Verizon in all areas), so buying a prepaid Tracfone told me how Verizon's signal strength is in my area, but Verizon offers its own line of prepaid phones besides serving my Tracfone, so you can check their service using Verizon's prepaid phones if Verizon is what you're interested in;  my Virgin Mobile uses Sprint, so that gives an idea of what Sprint's services are like in my area.  My GoPhone gotten through AT&T of course shows what their services are like (GoPhone, formerly Cingular). 

Visiting the various cellular services sites online is the best way to learn about those services and what models of devices they offer and with what plans. 

I hope this general guide was of any use to you, naturally you'll want to do more research on your own.  Search cell phone auctions to compare the descriptions on services and features, and look for reviews and guides on the web through Google or Yahoo to read user or consumer testimony on what they like or dislike about particular phones, as well as the eBay reviews on those phones. 

Reviews have helped me to learn more about cells and saved me from buying the wrong one, so I hope this guide will save someone a headache by preventing them from buying the wrong device.